Research

My research focuses on the impact complex demographic histories have on evolutionary processes through time and space. The interactions of mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and selection can be greatly altered in non-equilibrium scenarios. I aim to study these processes through a combination of theoretical and empirical approaches to inform our understanding of local adaptation, mutation load, evolution of recombination modifiers, and the distribution of fitness effects for new mutations (DFE).

A portion of my research is devoted to methods testing and development where I have worked on methods for Q_ST-F_ST comparisons and investigated the biases associated with evolutionary inference approaches through analysis of simulated data, including inference of the DFE and estimation of effective population size.

I maintain an active interest in the role of data accessibility and archiving in scientific research and in scientific reproducibility, which I have worked on with the UBC reproducibility group.

My undergraduate research involved examining the effects of biological invasions on genetic diversity and population structure, and using this information combined with approximate Bayesian computation to describe the history of invasion of the plant Silene latifolia.

Please see my CV and publications for further information.